It sometimes occurs that portable mobile devices are subject to sudden mechanical shock, such as when accidentally dropped, struck against obstacles, having a lid closed too rapidly, or otherwise. These shocks can have a substantial sonic or air pressure effect on relatively smaller cavities in the device, such as when sonic pressure is applied to an input port coupled to a microphone. For example, when portable mobile devices allow audio input, such as voice input from a user, a microphone (or a microphone assembly) included in the portable mobile device can include at least one such cavity. It sometimes occurs that the microphone (or a portion of the microphone, such as its diaphragm) can be subject to substantial damage by sonic pressure in the event of a sudden mechanical shock.
It also sometimes occurs that microphones in portable mobile devices can be subject to sudden atmospheric shock, such as when those devices are improperly handled at or near an input for the microphone. Similar to mechanical shocks described above, these can have a substantial sonic pressure effect on the microphone, with the possibility of subjecting the microphone (or a portion of the microphone, such as its diaphragm) to substantial damage. For example, when an electric discharge (such as an electrical spark) occurs at or near an input port coupled to the microphone (or a microphone assembly), sonic pressure might damage the microphone or its diaphragm.
Each of these examples, as well as other possible considerations, can cause one or more difficulties as a result of damage to the microphone of a portable mobile device. For a first example, the device can lose some of its intended function, such as that the user might become unable to use the voice input or other audio input features of the device. For a second example, the device can exhibit unexpected behavior, such as that the user might experience lesser tonal response or other audio response from the device than expected, or might experience increased noise effects from distortion or partial damage of the microphone. In contrast, the device can benefit from protecting against microphone damage.